Sign in with Facebook
Books for the Workplace: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters
Rishad Tobaccowala is the author of Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data and the former chief strategist and growth officer of Publicis Groupe, an 80,000-person global marketing firm. He writes a weekly thought letter, which is free to subscribe to here.
Today we are living in an increasingly data-driven, silicon-based digital age. Some of the most valuable companies, and most of the fastest-growing ones, are built on their computational and software prowess. Logic, math, quantitative information, and the spreadsheet seem to predominate.
In such a mathematically infused environment, what role does emotional intelligence play in the workplace if it plays a role at all? After all, emotions are messy, unpredictable, and highly subjective!
Emotional intelligence matters because the workplace is about people, and people are emotional and messy, and while computers may connect with code, human interactions are based on a combination of logic and feelings because we are analog, carbon-based, feeling creatures.
The philosopher Blaise Pascal noted that “we choose with our hearts and use numbers to justify what we just did.”
EQ matters because some of the key traits of leadership are integrity, empathy, vulnerability, and inspiration—all of which are emotional at the core. EQ also matters at work because it allows people to differentiate and add value to machines and software, which will increasingly take over all the computational, logic-based, and pattern-finding parts of a job.
To succeed at work, we will need to combine (a) technology, (b) spreadsheet skills (data, measurable outcomes, ROI), and (c) stories about purpose and meaning that resonate with people.
Successful individuals will marry TQ (technology quotient) with IQ and EQ.
Here are eight books that help one navigate the way forward.
In an age of AI, humans will differentiate by being social, scarce, and surprising.
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
It is not people versus machines but people and machines that is the way to the future.
This is the granddaddy of books on EQ, which describes five types of EQ and the importance of EQ at work.
One of the keys of a success at work is the ability to convince others to buy your products and ideas, and the most successful salespeople speak human and not just data.
To build emotional intelligence, one needs to feel through other people. There is no book better than Madame Bovary in making one live outside oneself and in someone else’s head.
A spellbinding read of how an award-winning botanist learned how to navigate and leverage emotions in a world of science.
The longtime NYT book reviewer distills the key knowledge from 100 books that allow one to understand the range of humanity and how we all find connections and meaning.
Workplace culture is about how humans and emotions infuse a place and cause with meaning, and there is no better story on its sculpting than this book.
Which books would you recommend for improving emotional intelligence at work? Let us know in the comments.
Check out more recent articles:
INSERT LINK HERE.
INSERT LINK HERE.
INSERT LINK HERE.
Check out more recent articles:
INSERT LINK HERE.
INSERT LINK HERE.
INSERT LINK HERE.
Comments
No comments have been added yet.
